Hours of work are the part of the codes where the statute gives the principle and the rules give the number. Anyone quoting a firm figure for the weekly cap or the maximum overtime without naming a notification has not read it.
What the Code itself fixes
- Eight hours in a day. No worker shall be required or allowed to work in any establishment for more than eight hours in a day, and the period of work in each day is to be fixed so as not to exceed such hours, with such intervals and spread overs as the appropriate Government notifies.
- Six days in a week. No worker shall be allowed to work in an establishment for more than six days in any one week. Where an exemption deprives a worker of a weekly holiday, compensatory holidays of an equal number must be allowed within that month or the two months following.
- Overtime at twice the rate. Wages at twice the rate of wages are payable for overtime work where a worker works for more than the hours in a day or a week prescribed by the appropriate Government, and the overtime is to be calculated on a daily or a weekly basis, whichever is more favourable to the worker. Two provisos matter: the worker must consent to the overtime, and the appropriate Government may prescribe the total number of overtime hours.
- Annual leave with wages. A worker who has worked one hundred and eighty days or more in a calendar year earns one day of leave for every twenty days worked. Up to thirty days may be carried forward, leave applied for but refused may be carried forward without limit, and leave beyond thirty days may be encashed. On discharge, dismissal or quitting, wages in lieu of the leave to credit are payable before the expiry of the second working day, and within two months on superannuation or death.
They are written for a worker, and the safety Code's definition of worker excludes a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity and a person employed in a supervisory capacity drawing wages exceeding eighteen thousand rupees a month or such amount as the Central Government notifies. The Ministry of Labour and Employment's frequently asked questions put the leave position the same way: the leave provisions apply to workers, and to supervisors whose wage does not exceed that figure. A technical or operational role is inside whatever it pays, because the wage cap attaches only to supervisory work. Our note on whether you count as a worker under the Industrial Relations Code works through the same distinction, which the two codes draw in nearly identical terms.
The Karnataka layer, which most Bengaluru offices actually run on
The Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 was not repealed by the codes, and for a shop or commercial establishment in the State it says:
- no employee shall be required or allowed to work more than nine hours on any day and forty eight hours in any week;
- the total hours of work including overtime shall not exceed ten hours in any day, except on days of stock taking and preparation of accounts;
- total overtime shall not exceed fifty hours in a period of three continuous months; and
- work beyond nine hours in a day or forty eight in a week is paid at twice the rate of normal wages, normal wages there meaning basic wages plus the allowances the worker is entitled to, excluding bonus.
Two cautions. The Act does not apply to persons occupying positions of management. And Karnataka has from time to time exempted information technology and information technology enabled services establishments from some of these provisions by notification, subject to conditions, so the notification in force for your employer has to be read rather than assumed.
The figures nobody should quote from memory
The Code fixes the eight hour day and the doubling of the overtime rate. It does not fix the weekly hours limit, the rest intervals, the spread over, or the ceiling on overtime hours. Those are prescribed by the appropriate Government, and the central and State rules can differ. The Ministry's frequently asked questions describe the working position as eight hours a day with overtime at twice the normal rate where a worker works more than eight hours in a day or more than forty eight hours in a week, and say that where a longer daily maximum has been prescribed, overtime still runs from the eighth hour. Treat that as administrative guidance, and check the notification that applies to your establishment before you calculate anything.
Making a claim
Overtime is unpaid wages, so the claim is a wages claim. Keep your own attendance record, system logs, shift rosters and the approval trail for the extra hours, because employers who do not pay overtime usually do not keep the register properly. Ask in writing for the attendance and overtime registers for the period in question. Then take it to the authority appointed under the Code on Wages, 2019, which can order the amount due with compensation in addition. Check what your appointment letter says about hours and about compensatory time off before you write, because a contractual entitlement can be better than the statutory one and is enforceable as a contract; our guide on what an Indian employment agreement should contain covers those clauses. For where the safety Code sits among the four and what else changed on the same date, see our overview of what the four labour codes changed for employees.